Wallpaper Commission

Arts & Culture, University of Exeter

Inspired by the 19th century engravings of works by JMW Turner held in the University’s fine art collection, I was commissioned to create site-specific wallpaper for the Queen’s Building on the University’s Streatham Campus.

There were two elements of the engravings that I wanted to try and capture in my wallpaper. The subject matter - pastoral picturesque scenes. I was interested that Turner had chosen to feature water in each landscape, through rivers, calm and stormy seas, canals and estuaries. Secondly, the mark-making in the engravings. I loved the variety of detail, marks and lines that the engravers had used. I wanted the wallpaper to draw attention to these and to retain an element of the engravings themselves.

images: detail from Exeter, engraving by T Jeavons after JM Turner 1775–1851/ testing screenprint exposure times/ wallpaper colourway experiments/ details of the wallpaper and the final installation.

2023

Dorset boundary gate commission

Langton Herring and Abbotsbury parish boundary

Commissioned by Dorset Council, I designed steel figurative inserts for these gates (beautifully created by Alex Brooks) that tell the story of this “Doubly Thankful Village”. Langton Herring was one of 16 English villages to see everyone return safely from both WW1 and WW2.

I loved researching the local Dorset trades that men returned from WW1 to, and all the new roles for women in WW2. I even managed to meet with Robert Payne who signed up, age 15 and still lives locally. He’s featured here as the running school boy. I tried to use as many actual local individuals in the gate’s design as possible.

2022

Trade & Exchange Commission

HORTICULTURAL GOLD

I was one of two artists commissioned as part of Exeter’s COVID-19 Recovery Plan (led by Exeter Culture, Exeter City Council and the Devon and Exeter Institution) to transform vacant retail units into art spaces.

My installation - a layered three-dimensional wallpaper - responded to the rich and complex legacy of the Exeter Veitch Nursery, and our continuing relationship with tropical plants as objects of curiosity and ornamentation.

While this artwork celebrates the significant impact the Veitch Nursery had on horticulture in Europe, it also questions how the legacy of collection and colonialism shapes how we view plants to this day. Tropical plants have been seen as decorative objects, as subjects of scientific and pharmaceutical interest, as food sources and even as status symbols, but it is easy to overlook their complex indigenous plant-lore, mythology and ecosystems, and their ongoing importance to the cultures whose connection with them is thousands of years old.

2021

West Dorset Parish Boundary Markers

The West Dorset Coast Path Parish Boundary project was collaboration between local people, landowners, local artists and craftsmen in response to their landscape and its rich cultural history. I worked with furniture maker Alex Brooks to create two way markers. I designed the silhouettes which were then cut in corten steel and assembled within the wooden structures.

At Charmouth: a gate referencing the AD 836 Danish Viking landings on the beach. As you approach the gate the Viking warships align with the sea horizon.

At Ware in Lyme Regis: fence panels celebrating the iconic 19th century women pivotal in Lyme Regis’ reputation as the cradle of modern palaeontology (both in history and fiction) – Mary Anning, Mary Buckland, & Sarah Woodruff.

2020

Muse: Makers in Museums

I was one of eight artists selected by South West Heritage Trust to work with rural museums and heritage centres in the South West. I created monoprints and an animated carpet inspired by the 18th century Axminster carpet in Axminster Heritage Centre. I was interested in the stories behind the selection of plants in the carpet pattern and how the carpet had worn over hundreds of years.

2017

Kensington Palace, Sunken Gardens installation

I was commissioned by Historic Royal Palaces to create a large-scale interactive public installation for Kensington Palace. The artwork explored the secrets of former inhabitants of the palace (the Rat-catcher, Peter the wild boy, Anne and Sarah Churchill, William III and Mary II)

2011

Unravelling the Manor, Preston Manor, Brighton

As part of the contemporary craft group Unravelled, I created a site-specific animation on a screenprinted dressing screen to illuminate imagined lives of some of the Edwardian staff.

2010